Look at qualifications before voting

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, August 8, 2006

To the Editor:

Terry Lewis believes that a Law Degree should be required for one holding the office of Probate Judge.

Let’s look at a few other offices and their requirements.

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Qualifications for the President of the United States: No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States.

Qualifications for a Justice of the United States Supreme Court: The Constitution does not specify formal qualifications for membership on the Supreme Court.

Talk about Spartan Qualifications for such important positions. Then we have our local government.

What are the Qualifications for holding the office of Mayor Selma Alabama? The person must be 18 years of age, be a resident of the state for 90 days, a resident of the city for 90 days – Prior to the Election&8217; and be a citizen of the United States for only one day.

The same qualifications hold true for a member of the Selma City Council. There is one qualification you left out for being a Probate Judge.

That is that one can not be elected or be appointed to the office after reaching the age of 70. The one thing that makes our country great is that we open up our government offices to the general public. When we start putting qualification after qualification on public servants we limit our choices and thereby limit our freedom.

When we go to the polls in November we should vote for the person

– not their pedigree.

Kevin Ross